Source

In order to create an image, a source must be defined. The source section is defined as follows:

source:
    downloader: <string> # required
    url: <string>
    keys: <array>
    keyserver: <string>
    variant: <string>
    suite: <string>
    same_as: <boolean>
    skip_verification: <boolean>
    components: <array>

The downloader field defines a downloader which pulls a rootfs image which will be used as a starting point. It needs to be one of

• alpinelinux-http

• alt-http

• apertis-http

• archlinux-http

• centos-http

• debootstrap

• docker-http

• fedora-http

• funtoo-http

• gentoo-http

• nixos-http

• openeuler-http

• opensuse-http

• openwrt-http

• oraclelinux-http

• sabayon-http

• rootfs-http

• ubuntu-http

• voidlinux-http

The url field defines the URL or mirror of the rootfs image. Although this field is not required, most downloaders will need it. The rootfs-http downloader also supports local image files when prefixed with file://, e.g. url: file:///home/user/image.tar.gz or url: file:///home/user/image.squashfs.

The keys field is a list of GPG keys. These keys can be listed as fingerprints or armored keys. The latter has the advantage of not having to rely on a key server to download the key from. The keys are used to verify the downloaded rootfs tarball if downloaded from a insecure source (HTTP).

The keyserver defaults to hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net if none is provided.

The variant field is only used in a few distributions and defaults to default. Here’s a list downloaders and their possible variants:

• centos-http: minimal, netinstall, LiveDVD

• debootstrap: default, minbase, buildd, fakechroot

• ubuntu-http: default, core

• voidlinux-http: default, musl

All other downloaders ignore this field.

The suite field is only used by the debootstrap downloader. If set, debootstrap will use suite instead of image.release as its first positional argument.

If the same_as field is set, distrobuilder creates a temporary symlink in /usr/share/debootstrap/scripts which points to the same_as file inside that directory. This can be used if you want to run debootstrap foo but foo is missing due to debootstrap not being up-to-date.

If skip_verification is true, the source tarball is not verified.

If the components field is set, debootstrap will use packages from the listed components.

If a package set has the early flag enabled, that list of packages will be installed while the source is being downloaded. (Note that early packages are only supported by the debootstrap downloader.)